In front of reporters, university officials, coaches and fans, Pat Haden, then athletic director, introduced Andy Enfield as the new basketball coach.

Enfield just made history at Florida Gulf Coast, directing the first No. 15 seed to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16, and Haden vowed the new hire would find success on the West Coast, too.

In the half-decade since, his words have seemed mostly prescient. Enfield has revived the Trojans’ dormant program, making consecutive trips to the tournament with a possible third straight appearance in the 68-team field this March. The Trojans, riding a five-game winning streak, sit in second place in the Pac-12 at 16-6 overall and 7-2 in conference play.

But Haden’s final promise might have been the most ambitious.

Moments before he welcomed Enfield to the lectern, Haden pointed to Enfield’s up-tempo style of offense and contended it would draw more fans and alumni to their games at the Galen Center.

It hasn’t.

USC is winning and is indeed one of the fastest-paced teams in the nation, averaging 80 points per game and posting its share of highlight-reel dunks, but its on-campus arena remains at least half empty most nights, seeing little spike amid its turnaround.

Last season, with a program-record 26 wins, USC averaged 4,625 fans over 17 home games. Through this season’s 12 home games, attendance has dropped to 3,809, though that is expected to rise with four conference games left, including Sunday afternoon’s tip-off against Cal and the regular-season finale in March against UCLA, a rivalry game that was a sellout the past two seasons.

Crowds have shrunk across the nation, with average home attendance hitting a 25-year low in the NCAA’s Division I last season, according to the organization’s figures, but they have particularly lagged at USC. The Trojans rank second-to-last in the Pac-12 in home attendance this season, ahead of only Washington State.

Kelley and others at USC had hoped this season might see bigger strides.

After the Trojans won a pair of NCAA tournament games last March, along with returning all but one scholarship player, interest in the program rose. Kelley estimated the school sold about 500 new basketball season tickets in the offseason (Officials declined to provide an exact tally of total season-ticket holders).

In its season-opening rout of Cal State Fullerton in November, USC, affixed with its first preseason top-10 ranking in four decades, drew 6,237 spectators, a season-high and the biggest crowd for a home opener since 2006, its inaugural game at the Galen Center.

But it has since struggled to re-create similar interest throughout a season that has seen ups and downs, leaving more images on TV of empty maroon seats lining the arena’s lower bowl.

A few factors may have drained some of the anticipation.

Attention swirled around an FBI investigation into corruption and bribery in college basketball, leading to the firing of associate head coach Tony Bland and yearlong suspension of De’Anthony Melton, a versatile sophomore guard and popular player. Melton, who was initially withheld from games for what the school described as a “precaution,” had been in limbo until earlier this month.

After a 4-0 start, the Trojans dropped three consecutive games to Texas A&M, SMU and Oklahoma, their first three-game skid in non-conference play during Enfield’s tenure, and fell out of the top-25.

Elijah Stewart, a senior guard, reasoned fans’ interest in the team waned without “that number by our name.”

“We were supposed to be a top-10 team in the country, and we had some losses we shouldn’t have lost,” added Nick Rakocevic, a sophomore center, “so I think they were like, ‘Maybe, they’re not what they were supposed to be.’”

Two other conference home games were held during the Cotton Bowl and on New Year’s Eve.

Interest can fluctuate.

Last season, USC sold out its game against UCLA and drew 9,256 fans for a late-season game against Oregon, a top-10 team, but it otherwise only saw more than half capacity on two other occasions.

School officials said the number of no-shows has long been a significant factor for the program’s attendance woes, noting that many of them are Trojan Athletic Fund members who hold football and basketball season-tickets, but rarely show up for hoops.

“Getting people into the building has typically been the problem,” Kelley said.

Kelley pointed to a home conference game against Utah earlier this month, when more than 6,500 tickets were distributed for the Sunday evening tip-off. However, the announced attendance was 4,822, meaning more than 1,500 potential spectators did not come. To calculate its attendance figures, USC uses “turnstile” attendance, accounting for fans who enter the venue and have their tickets scanned.

It has become almost routine for marketing department staff members to send emails to season-ticket holders who miss the first five games of a season, encouraging them to attend. Kelley referred to it as re-marketing. They also advertise the opportunity to donate tickets back to the school if the fans cannot attend certain nights, and have added in-game entertainment options, including an in-house disc jockey in recent seasons, as enticements.

Thomas Haire, a 1994 USC graduate and longtime basketball season-ticket holder said many football fans “just don’t care about basketball.”

There are the usual obstacles for many too: heavy traffic for weeknight games and a city that is flush with other entertainment options.

“There’s so much more to do than go to a basketball game,” sophomore guard Jonah Mathews said.

For students, they are also absent for most of the December schedule while home on winter break.

The schedule has varied more in recent seasons, particularly after the current Pac-12 TV deal with ESPN and Fox took effect with the 2012-13 season. The Trojans have home conference games on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this season.

In the first six seasons USC played at the Galen Center, 48 of its 54 conference games were either on Thursday or Saturday, typically paired together in the three-day span.

Several of USC’s players lamented the smaller crowds, especially as they stockpile wins over another season, but few were surprised.

“We do what we can to bring the fans in,” senior guard Jordan McLaughlin said.

Added Enfield, “All we can do is do our best and appreciate the people who do show up.”

EMPTY SEATS

USC averaged 4,471 fans at the 10,258-seat Galen Center from 2009-13, a struggling period under former coach Kevin O’Neill with only one NCAA tournament appearance in 2011 and a school-record 26-loss season in 2012. The arrival of Coach Andy Enfield has led the Trojans to consecutive NCAA tournament appearances and a possible third straight trip this season, but average attendance at the arena has not spiked.

Joey Kaufman is the USC beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Since joining the Orange County Register in 2015, he has also covered Major League Baseball and UCLA athletics. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers Association of America. Kaufman grew up in beautiful downtown Burbank.

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